New Madrid native Mary Sue Anton has published a third book about her hometown

When Mary Sue Anton started writing her latest book, "Tales of a Century-Old Courthouse: New Madrid County, Missouri," she had hoped to complete it before the end of the year, as 2015 was the courthouse's centennial.

Although that didn't happen, she met her goal of assembling a collection of stories about the courthouse, full of vignettes of happenings around the Greek Revival-style building.

The building was spruced up a bit in honor of the bicentennial celebration, which included a stained glass dome atop the rotunda, a county seal dating back to 1821.

To compile the tale, she turned to past editions of The Weekly Record, the newspaper in New Madrid, for stories they reported on throughout the years about different activities and cases at the historic building.

Released in April, the book is a companion to her second book, "New Madrid: A Mississippi River Town in History and Legend," published in 2009. Anton also is the author of "Pioneers of New Madrid, Missouri, and their Descendants," published in 1994.

Mary Sue Anton's new book, Tales from a Century-Old Courthouse: New Madrid County, Missouri, was published in April. (submitted photo)

Anton lives in Texas, but she focused on New Madrid because that's where she grew up.

Her grandfather, Judge Lee C. Phillips, was a probate court judge in New Madrid, and the book is dedicated to him.

She even used a replica of one of the judge's books, circa 1930, as the facade for the cover of "Tales of a Century-Old Courthouse: New Madrid County, Missouri," which creates the impression of a leather-bound book.

Anton's personal history with the building dates back to the her childhood, when at age 7, during the Great Flood of 1937, she and her siblings and their parents were allowed to live in the building until the waters receded on the family's dairy farm.

One of the stories, a sad one, involves the death of 30 men who came to the area to work during the Great Depression. Many men were out of work at that time, and they had come from around the region to sandbag the levies during the Great Flood, but their boat sank, and they all perished.

"I have listed the name of each man in the book," Anton said.

She said she would welcome the opportunity to speak with one of his descendants and hopes one of them may notice a loved one's name in the book and contact her.

To put these stories together, Anton also interviewed every employee who works in the building, or at least everyone who worked there at the time her research was conducted.

She discovered that in 1905, there was a controversy between the cities of Lilbourn and New Madrid about which city would get a courthouse, and the case went before the Missouri Supreme Court before it was decided that it should go to New Madrid.

"I guess the towns made up after that," Anton said.

Another story, from 1933, involves the then-sheriff, Sam Harris, who had to perform an execution, one of the last legal hangings in the state's history. According to the report Anton unearthed, he was upset at having to do it.

"He knew he might have to do something like that when he was running for office," she said.

Anton said there were many more stories that she wasn't able to include in the manuscript.

"There was a lot more I could have told, but I just didn't have time," she said.

Anton's books are available at:

amazon.com and through her website, marysueanton.com. "New Madrid: A Mississippi River Town" is available at Barnes & Noble in Cape Girardeau. Her new book is not yet on the store's shelves, but can be ordered in the store.